Story of a Big Player from Gangnam

GH Development had the largest invested fund among Gun-Ho’s companies by acquiring RiverStar Building in Sinsa Town.

Its capital was 40 billion won and the loan from a bank was 165 billion won. However, this company was generating revenue based on its real estate investment, unlike other companies which require labor as an important part of resources to generate money. Therefore, it was a less risky business.

“Well, this company is just self-sufficient. We get rents from our tenants in the building, and we pay our workers with that income and also pay to the bank for the loan interest.”

The good thing by keeping this building is that Gun-Ho appeared to be a wealthy man who owned a very expensive building, and also the value of the land would keep increasing as time goes on.

What about GH Media? Gun-Ho invested 300 million won in this company. It was a small start-up. Well, Gun-Ho recently invested an additional 300 million won in order to allow them to publish a cartoon series on world history, which was very popular in Amazon.com. However, 600 million won was not a substantial amount of money to Gun-Ho, and he wouldn’t lose much even if this company would go bankrupt someday. He established this company in case he might have an opportunity to do some entertainment business with China.

The companies that Gun-Ho focused on the most were GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea.

GH Mobile was formerly known as Mulpasaneop. Gun-Ho changed its name to GH Mobile once he acquired the company. Gun-Ho invested approximately 7 billion won into it. Gun-Ho purchased this company from the previous owner—President Se-Young Oh—for 2 billion won and assumed the company’s substantial business debt. He later added an additional 3 billion won to pay off some urgent debts. Additionally, he put another 2 billion won when he decided to build a new factory in Jiksan Town.

For accounting purposes, the additional 3 billion won was recorded as a loan from Gun-Ho to the company, and another 2 billion won was recorded as Gun-Ho put the fund into the company as the president of the entity. So once the company got back on track, Gun-Ho would be able to get those 5 billion won back.

Dyeon Korea was an investment of GH Mobile.

The paid-in capital was 10 million dollars. However, GH Mobile could put 1 million dollars into the joint venture in cash and would invest the rest of the dues in kind by contributing the factory which was being built in Asan City. Dyeon would send in cash worth 500,000 dollars to the joint venture and would provide raw materials and their old equipment as their investment-in-kind. To Dyeon, it wasn’t even a huge investment at all. They would record the value of their old equipment higher than they actually were.

The first goal of Gun-Ho’s Tokyo planning was that he wanted to register GH Mobile and Dyeon Korea with KOSDAQ.

Even though he probably had to reduce his shares by doing so, making those two companies a KOSDAQ registered company was the only breakthrough he could think of. He, of course, had a lot of cash in hand; he had 170 billion won in his stock account and an additional 4 billion won in his bank account in Gangnam. However, he determined that he would never ever put all he got into his business. That was what he learned bitterly while he was acquiring his company. Putting all he got into a business was the most stupid thing a man could do.

Gun-Ho once asked a few questions to himself and answered those questions by himself.

‘Say, an armed robber is asking me to give him my 170 billion won stored in my stock account. Would I give it to him, or would I rather let him kill me? I would let him take my life instead of taking my 170 billion won.’

Gun-Ho then yelled looking up at the sky.

“If someone asks me whether money is more important or a person is more important, I would say that money is more important than a person. And if someone asks me whether my reputation is more important or my money is more important, I would say my money is more important.”

He continued to yell while looking up at the sky,

“If someone reminded me that I wouldn’t be able to take my money with me when I die, I would say without hesitation that I will keep my money until the moment I stop breathing.”

Gun-Ho remembered what Chairman Lee of Cheongdam Town said when Gun-Ho brought some Jokbal to share with him at the fishing site in Pocheon City.

“These Jokbal look so delicious.”

“I bought them from a local restaurant in downtown, Pocheon City. The restaurant is small, but its location is very convenient. You can dine in, and they have a very convenient parking lot for a vehicle or motorcycle. Since the location is excellent, I guess they won’t sell the restaurant to anyone, but they will probably pass it on to their children.”

Chairman Lee smiled and shook his head.

“You are wrong.”

“Huh?”

“The correct answer is… the restaurant owner wouldn’t even pass on the restaurant to his children.”

Gun-Ho couldn’t understand the meaning of it at that moment, but what Chairman Lee said that day had resonated in his mind for a long time.

Speaking of the devil, Gun-Ho received a call from Chairman Lee of Cheongdam Town at that very moment.

“President Goo? Are you in Seoul right now? Or are you in Jiksan Town?”

“I am in Seoul, sir.”

“I am actually passing by your GH Building where you are at right now. I am on my way to the Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, St. Mary’s Hospital, and you crossed my mind when I saw your building.”

“Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, St. Mary’s Hospital? Are you ill, sir?”

“No no. Not me. Master Park is in that hospital, who was staying in Goesan Town.”

“Master Park, sir?”

“Yes, he is diagnosed with gastric cancer. It’s early-stage cancer. It’s not even considered serious these days.”

“I should visit him at the hospital as well then.”

“You don’t have to. You are not that close to him, anyway. How’s your business?”

“It’s doing well, sir.”

“That’s good to hear. Well, then I guess I have to let you go.”

Chairman Lee then hung up the phone.

Gun-Ho went back to his thoughts on how to execute his Tokyo plan.

“In order to register my companies with KOSDAQ, I have to fulfill their requirements such as keeping a certain level of debt ratio and sales revenues and things like that. I had done some accounting work before, but I have never experienced any KOSDAQ registration work.”

Gun-Ho thought of GH Mobile’s internal auditor, Mr. Hee-Suk Goh. He first came to GH Mobile to oversee the court receivership, and then he decided to stay and work for GH Mobile as Gun-Ho offered him a position.

“He had handled the court receivership of many companies, and he also used to work for a bank as a branch manager. He might have some experience with KOSDAQ registration work. Or maybe not. Should I hire someone who is well familiar with the work?”

At that moment, Gun-Ho recoiled from the thought that S Group’s former vice president probably knew well how to do it. Gun-Ho would soon have lunch with him.

“That’s right. He used to work as a CEO of a mid-sized firm and a vice president for a large company. He probably has experience with KOSDAQ registration. I will ask him during our next lunch appointment.”

Note*

Jokbal – Korean dish made of pig’s trotters with soy sauce.